Speaking at a foreign policy forum in South Carolina on Tuesday, Gingrich advocated a "commission on gold to look at the whole concept of how do we get back to hard money."
I guess Newt Gingrich has not been reading fellow conservative Ramesh Ponnuru, the mostly right-of-center Market Monetarists, or even libertarian Tyler Cowen. If he had he would know what we need is sound money, not hard money.
P.S. There is no need for a new commission on the gold standard. It has been extensively studied and there is a huge literature on it. I would start with Barry Eichengreen.
It is downright scary how the GOP's "mainstream" has become obsessed with the gold standard. Did they forget Friedman?
ReplyDeleteOh, P.U. to the gold standard.
ReplyDeleteI contend there are only two kind of monetarists today (or even economists). You are either a Market Monetarist, or a Theo-Monetarist.
Market Monetarists have sensible plan for growth and reasonable inflation.
Theo-Monetarists worship stagnant values for paper money, and genuflect to gold. They never explain how we get economic growth in zero inflation, or why Japan is an epic failure.
In a way, Keynsians are really Market Monetarists--Krugman even allowed that deficit spending can be can called out by too-tight money (like now).
We Market Monetarists contend that putting money to work in the private sector is better than having government spend it.
Frankly, at this point I would take any stimulus, even if it means dumping cash onto street corners.
Lars--Yes, the GOP has forgotten Friedman; they have forgotten prudent foreign policy; they have forgotten keeping government out of private lives; they have forgotten separation of church and state; they have forgotten civil rights of even American citizens.
I want to vote for a pro-business, pro-growth party, but instead we have a bunch of lulu's over at the GOP.
"disappointing"
ReplyDeletetypo
Thanks Anonymous, it's now fixed.
ReplyDeleteWhat about if Newt means a free banking gold standard? Larry White critiques Eichengreen a bit in that piece.
ReplyDeletePeople keep taking the conservative commentariat at face value - they are all gold bugs not because of any misguided belief, but only because there's much money in it for them. Newt doesn't care about sound money vs. hard money - all he cares about is making money, which happens for him and his friends everytime they convince another conservative yahoo to buy a bunch of gold.
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